Прочие
Производитель White Space Gallery

Описание:
Portraits of Kaunas and Vilnius Jewish Ghetto Survivors, published to accompany the exhibition Antanas Sutkus: In Memoriam. This is one of the artist's last significant works dedicated to the Lithuanian people, poignantly culminating his life-long survey, People of Lithuania, which began in 1976. Rooted in the classical European documentary tradition of humanist photography (Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz, Izis, Brassai), that project's black and white portraits of ordinary people in their everyday life stood in opposition to the model citizens and workers imagery then promoted by Soviet propaganda, and Sutkus is said to have also drawn inspiration from writers such as Kafka, Sartre and Faulkner, and filmmakers such as Fellini and Bunuel. In 1988 the artist began to photograph the Kaunas Jews who had escaped death in concentration camps. He learned about the mass killing of Jews by Nazis during WWII from his grandparents and felt deeply moved by the humiliation, tragic fate and mass destruction of human life in his homeland. Gradually personal relationships were formed between the photographer and his portrait subjects, mixed with feelings of shame and guilt for what happened behind the Vilijampole ghetto gates and the 9th fort - then known as "Enterprise 1.005B" - between 1941 and 1944. As far back as the time of Lithuania's Grand Duke Gediminas (1275-1341), who invited traders and artisans to come to Lithuania from various European states, the Jews were promised protection and support. During the following six hundred years the Jews took root in Lithuanian soil through their works and prayers, printing shops and synagogues, libraries and gymnasiums, songs and legend. That vibrant branch of Lithuania's history and culture was abruptly ended when 200,000 men, women and children were shot dead and thrown into pits at forest edges, into quarries and death camps.

Описание:
Russian photographer Yaroshenko's series on the world's most northernmost city Norilsk, founded as a site for forced labour. In a memorable image from Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (1961), Lidia stands at the corner of a building, framed by the developing outskirts of Milan during the miracolo economico. As seemingly stagnant contemporary "ruins" decay around her, they simultaneously continue to expand with Milan's economic development. This collapse of history into place is captured in the photographs by Grigoriy Yaroshenko contained in this book. The pictures take the Russian city of Norilsk as their protagonist - somewhat analogous to Antonioni's portrayal of Lidia. The city's collective memory includes traumas that are inscribed into its ruins: composed of massive and expansive housing blocks, seemingly infinite mines, quarries, and factories, and a permafrost extending towards the horizon in every direction. Its operating factories and plants are as much a fabric of the city as its natural geography. It was founded as a site for forced labour, constituting the centre of the Norillag system of GULAG labour camps, with 72,500 inmates at its peak in 1951. Looking to Yaroshenko's series of pictures, it is clear that the past and present can not be separated from one another - the former informs the latter, and the latter contains the former's mark, rhythm, and material/immaterial ruins. Yaroshenko's wandering eye has captured how a city can emerge from darkness in more ways than one, and can carve out a present without forsaking its history in the process.